Juno News - December 09, 2022
Journalist compares her work to…performing surgery??
Episode Stats
Words per minute
203.39896
Harmful content
Toxicity
3
sentences flagged
Hate speech
4
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode of Fake News Friday, Andrew Lawton and Harrison Faulkner tackle the idea that journalism is like brain surgery, and that unless you're part of the elite brain surgeon club, you're not even a real journalist.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to you all it is another Friday which means it's another time for fake news
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Friday which means it's oh no that was it that was all I had yeah it's fake news Friday
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December 9th 2022 I am Andrew Lawton joined as always or as usual by Harrison Faulkner
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swimming through that blizzard of lies debunking all that's wrong in the world and hopefully trying
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to make sense of it and make you laugh did I get the mandate of the show right I think you're pretty
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close there I have to say usually you usually you team me up with a little how was your week and I
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was gonna say that my week was great until I just read a Twitter thread Andrew which really shook my
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confidence as a journalist I started to realize that hey these these Toronto Star journalists
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these experts over there that take a bit of take a bit of a taxpayer money they have so much confidence
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and so much pride in their work that they actually equate their journalism Andrew to brain surgery and
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I mean when when you put it in that sense us lowly journalists at True North how can we possibly
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compete with the expert brain surgeon journalists over the Toronto Star yeah that is fair enough and
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a perfect segue into this thread that was written by one Toronto Star journalist by the name of
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Saba Itazaz now I'm not familiar with Saba's work and I have no idea how good she is as a journalist
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but it was an odd sort of comparison she made here because she said that imagine someone randomly
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showing up when you're sick and saying they'll be performing surgery on you without any training
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accreditations qualifications you're like no way they're like how dare you gatekeep this profession
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I'm an independent surgeon I see where it's going she continues if someone knows how to merely point
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scalpels at things and cut them would you let them work on you because mainstream doctors are too elite
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give the power back to the people they don't need to be trained they just need to be there now apply
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I'm told the people liked it when I did that last time when I get when I flip on sassy mode that's what I'm
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doing that's an old boss from the past like I can't drop this mic because it's you know wired in
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there but if I were to drop the mic that would be when I would drop the mic so the point is that
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journalism is like brain surgery and anyone who says you should support an independent journalist
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is like saying that you want just some guy that lives under the bridge to do your surgery I don't
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even quite know the point that she's making like at first I read it and was wondering is she calling
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for licensing of journalists and then I wondered is she just saying that you have to go to journalism
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school to be a journalist like I wasn't even quite clear what the point was it just basically
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sounded to me like she was saying you know what I'm a real journalist anyone outside the club doesn't
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get to be a part of it well I think that's exactly it Andrew I mean it's not like it's a new it's not
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like it's a new opinion that this journalist is sharing we hear it constantly that unless you work
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for one of the big mainstream outlets one of the outlets in Canada that you know takes a bunch of
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cash from the government which is usually a sign that you're not really objective but nonetheless
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that's what Toronto Star is doing so that's usually what they're saying they're saying that really
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unless you work for one of unless you work with us unless you're part of our club well then frankly
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you're not even a real journalist and we can look we can look at all these other examples but just this
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week we can even we can even tie this into what happened to Blacklock's reporter the independent
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outlet at the parliamentary press gallery they were they were kicked out of the parliamentary press
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gallery because what one of the journalists was supposedly not wearing earphones in the uh in
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the parliamentary office I think it was it was it was deeper than that of course they don't take
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money from the government and the rest of them do and that's sort of this whole this whole idea that
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there's a club there's a little club and you're not in it unless you work for one of these outlets and
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I mean take a look at this it's it doesn't even really I don't know it doesn't even take very much
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pretty much analysis unless you unless you are part of their club you're not you're not really a real
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journalist all of these outlets that do take money from the government all these journalists that do
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work for these outlets all pretty much write the same exact thing they all have the exact same narrative
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and that's exactly what they're going for here they are basically saying that unless you went to
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journalism school unless you are a part of our club you're not a real journalist so Susan Thompson this
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woman on Twitter uh responded back and just said so am I not a reporter because I started stringing with
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only an English degree we have editors you know and of course then she responded back and said well
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there you go you have a vetting system in place I find this hilarious since I'm a refugee journalist
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not even from here and don't have a western jay school degree or any privilege this tweet is not what
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you think it is so uh again it's all it's all part of this sort of backtracking she ended up deleting
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the tweet because I think she realized how insane it was Andrew but even when she faced backtrack even
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even when she faced criticism sorry she couldn't really hold up her argument and she's saying well
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she has no privilege she doesn't have a western jay school degree she just works for the toronto star
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very strange yeah there was another tweet in that exchange though that I found even more amusing
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because the person says to her well your point wasn't really clear and she said that it's good
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enough to serve me fine I don't follow a colonial syntax and I don't need to cheers so that's basically
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like your cover letter for a toronto star job you use a phrase like colonial syntax and you are
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absolutely in the clear and I have to bring this up because there's this new thing going around you
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may have seen online it's called chat gps and it's basically this open ai service that you can use and
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it's a free sort of beta trial thing if you find it really creepy I get it ai stuff is very weird and you
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can actually give this little bot a prompt and ask it to do something for you you could have a
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conversation with it you could ask it to write something for you I was playing around one night
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when I couldn't sleep and I said this I gave the prompt this exact thing this is not a word of a lie
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I said please write me a toronto star column about how power tools are racist and I'm like I don't know
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this thing's not going to work it's not going to give me anything lo and behold it gave me one two three
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four five six seven eight paragraphs that I think you could copy and paste and put into the toronto
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star I won't read the whole thing you can see it up on the screen there the lead it may seem strange
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to suggest that power tools inanimate objects used for construction and repairs could have any connection
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to racism however when we examine the history and current use of these tools a pattern emerges that
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reveals their inherent bias and discrimination you skip forward ahead it makes the case very well
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and then at the end of it in conclusion power tools may appear to be neutral objects but the history and
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current use of these tools reveal a pattern of bias and discrimination from their association with
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traditional gender roles and whiteness to the potential negative effects on marginalized workers it's clear
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that power tools are not as neutral as they may seem it's important for us to recognize and address
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these biases in order to create a more equitable and inclusive society did I just result in a
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toronto star reporter getting laid off because that to me seems just perfect it's perfect Andrew it's
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free of all colonial syntax and it's right on the money that's really that's really what I think is
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going on here this this AI bot that's almost scary it's scary how accurate that is it's incredible
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um you know I I hope that uh you never know though because because if it didn't go to if it didn't go
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to J school Andrew it's maybe not even part of the club I mean maybe we have to uh maybe we should
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bring in the AI bot as and publish it as uh as sort of like a joke column in true north as as basically
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like the most absurd take you could ever have because really that's brilliant that's hilarious stuff yeah I
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won't read it because it wasn't exactly pg but I did another one later I asked it to write me a love
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story between a twitter doctor and a mask and it got uh it got very erotic there so uh we that one's
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for the after hours edition of the program uh I'm gonna like this AI writing stuff is supposed to save
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time but I think I'm just wasting time because all day now I'm just going to be putting in these
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these different prompts here uh let's talk about a walking talking AI machine actually no I don't think
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there's any I which is you know intelligence uh but uh this is from Jagmeet Singh who has said that
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he is confronting the genocide that is taking place in Canada what's he going on about Harrison
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so uh what was it on Monday or Sunday Jagmeet Singh quote tweeted an MP and he wrote this white supremacy
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misogyny race and racism continue to contribute to this ongoing genocide of MMIWG2S uh and we must
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confront it Andrew so the MMIWG missing and murdered indigenous women and girls um that is under the
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you know in the eyes of Jagmeet Singh in the eyes of some uh you know even Justin Trudeau that is
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supposed to be a genocide in Canada right now uh and he tacks on the two spirit uh to the end of that which
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I wasn't aware of I didn't know that actually the there was a genocide uh being perpetrated by white
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supremacists against two-spirited indigenous women and girls but nonetheless apparently Jagmeet Singh
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thinks it is um but yes anyway so he writes this tweet basically saying Andrew that the government
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that you know he is propping up as uh as a part of his coalition is contributing to genocide which is
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a very strange accusation to make you're you're basically making that accusation against yourself too in a
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way uh he's talking about what took place in he's talking about basically the murder of three women
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indigenous women um and actually it's four one woman has yet to be identified by a serial killer
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in Winnipeg now that is supposed to be a genocide and he jumps at the opportunity to say it's a white
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supremacy it's misogyny it's racism and we must confront this genocide and we got some great replies
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and he got absolutely crushed in the comments Andrew he was the winner of the ratio of the week award the
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the prize ratio of the week award on ratioed uh and take a look at this so Jonathan Kaye commented
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this he says there's an ongoing genocide being conducted by the Canadian government the same
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government that's been in power for seven years which you and the NDP are now propping up as
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accessories to genocide what are you and your whole genocide air caucus going to turn yourself into the
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hague which is a funny way to look at this situation because why would Jagmeet Singh be so uh willing to
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label the government he's propping up as genocide yeah I mean I I think this is a very real issue
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and I think it's a very tragic issue and what's happened in Canada with these indigenous women
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what's happened with the range of indigenous uh women and girls that have gone missing that have
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been killed is absolutely horrific but you cheapen these things when you start trying to score political
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points on them which is what happens when Justin Trudeau gets up on stage and accuses his own
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country his own government of perpetrating an ongoing genocide and then we'll when it comes to
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accusing China of genocide it's well uh you know the word means it's tough to say no I mean who are we
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to say it's like you called yourself the leader of a genocidal nation and and Jagmeet Singh same thing
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you are propping up a genocidal government or are you just accusing Canadians of genocide like
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here's my belief if you believe genocide is happening right now what are you doing about it
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what does it say about you if you're sitting on your computer right now doing nothing and you
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think genocide is taking place no it's you're exactly right Andrew it is a tragedy and instead
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of doing anything about it it's not like it's not like we're seeing even the Canadian government
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Justin Trudeau as you said labeled this a genocide as well it's not like we're seeing really the
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Canadian government do much about it either uh let alone Jagmeet Singh who's propping up the government
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so as you said you said it perfectly there they believe there's an ongoing genocide in this country
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they have no willingness to actually call out a legitimate genocide that has taken place in China
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yet they're not doing anything about it and they're just trying to use it to score political points it
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is it's it's it's atrocious it's tragic it's disgusting really yet it's just supposed to be
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accepted we can't just go around Andrew and call ourselves genocidal because if you're not going to do
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anything about it if you're not going to actually address the root cause of the problem there was an article
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in 2015 from the global mail which said 70 of these incidents are take are being are being
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perpetrated by indigenous men so there's a real problem taking place we're not pinning the blame
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on anybody but what we are saying is if there's a real problem going on if it is really a tragedy as
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these politicians say it is which it obviously is then do something about it actually solve the
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problem but don't just go around saying it's white supremacy it's it's misogyny it's genesis it's it's
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racism it's atrocious it's completely ridiculous yeah you're basically just doing governance by the
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ai machine that i wrote the toronto star column with it's uh ridiculous uh why don't you take this
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next story which actually i think is also a contender for having written been written by an ai machine
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most certainly andrew this is yet another example of some great surgery-like journalism here from the
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ottawa citizen also a uh a taxpayer funded receiving a taxpayer uh receiving journalism outlet they wanted to
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sort of expand their uh expand their pool of writers so what did they do andrew they took a
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special column written by a mask get it written by a mask very clever stuff very very deep as the
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kids say it's very meta very deep stuff and i'm just going to read to you some of these lines because
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again this is just an excellent piece of journalism andrew really hitting the hitting hard and really
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kind of going right at the issues here starts off with this now hang on just before we get into this
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as i set the stage is this written by a n95 mask is it written by a cloth mask is it written by a
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gas mask do you know any identifiable details about the author uh my my my first read on it andrew
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is that it's one of those uh blue medical cloth masks on the 95 mass so it really it's not up to the
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real standard it's not up to the standard one of the forgotten masks this is like yesterday's
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downtrodden mask completely completely terrible terrible as dr tam says it's not one of those
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well-fitting medical masks it's just one of those blue random masks uh and he's feeling this mask
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is feeling really left behind because did you just misgender the mask by the way do you did it tell you
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it was a male no it didn't i don't think i did i don't think i did misgender it but if i did i i have
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to well it could be a she i don't know if it's a he mask come on harrison be woke well i'm being safe
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and i'm gonna go with they how about that we'll start with they they them is always good right right it's
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just it's just a mask so we'll go with they for it and and and the the mask starts off with this
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it's me your mask i'm here in between the cushions of your couch or maybe i'm under the bed it's difficult
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to tell it's so dark wow just just wonderful wonderful way to start off and then it goes
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on and there's some just there's some incredible incredible lines here as people continued to get
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sick and die we got over that and pretty soon you wouldn't go anywhere without me we lined up
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together at stores you showed me off at work we were very close very close i felt you every time
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you smiled it's kind of creepy and as autumn rolled into winter you remarked more than once how i felt
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a nice warm scarf a nice warm safe scarf andrew that's that's very important it wasn't just a warm
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scarf it was a safe scarf around your mouth very good stuff and then of course they had to kind of the
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mask sort of broke out it's it's it's medical knowledge because as we all know a very smart mask here
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remember that bmj formerly british medical journal analysis last november more than 70 studies
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worldwide looking at public health measures it said mask wearing accounted for a 53 reduction
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in the in the incidents of covet 19 we were doing good work you and i not you know i mean 50 of them
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didn't 50 of them didn't work but i guess 50 of them did work so there you go good work and also it
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gets political the mask gets a little political when ontario premier doug ford said we've got to move on
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that was all you needed it was the final straw without even a last kiss goodbye you discarded
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me as quickly as andy threw woody into his pile of ignored toys once buzz arrived oh andrew it's a
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love story between a mask and a forgotten friend a forgotten a forgotten lover in the mask just
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pretty pretty mouthy mask by the way i know right i mean where does a mask get off thinking it's so
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special it's just uh just a regular blue mask but look this is the kind of stuff you get when the
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taxpayers fund your journalism this is the kind of quality stuff you get and i don't even know if
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our ai bought friend would be able to pull up pull off something as as incredible as this andrew
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yeah i wonder if like the mask is a recipient of the local journalism initiative funding or something
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if the mask was if the mask was subsidized maybe this was an advertorial by the public health agency
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of canada you never know well if it's not then we do have the independent press gallery to back up the
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mask too if yeah a mask i will have to check if a mask has applied for accreditation with the ipg i
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don't know if that's uh i don't know if we can allow a mask in well we'll have to leave that up to uh
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to the experts so we'll leave that up to you guys andrew but i gotta say i mean like i said this is the
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kind of stuff that that with with probably without taxpayer funding you probably would never get this is
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this is a perfect example of why this sort of stuff in the ottawa citizen is very important uh
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they do end up telling us who might be behind the mask at the end of the story uh the guy's name i
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hate to burst our bubble here but it turns out the guy the guy might be named bruce diechman uh but
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i wouldn't be bragging about that if i were you bruce no no exactly but nonetheless he well he didn't
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he didn't put his name in the byline he only put it at the very bottom i wonder how many people
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actually got to the bottom of that article yeah he kept up the illusion until the uh until the
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bitter end all right uh uh do we have time for one more right because this one this was your baby you
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wanted to do this one most certainly yet yet another example andrew of great surgery like precision when
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it comes to journalism we're tackling the real issues here this is from the washington post just
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take a look at this headline here shark week lacks diversity over represents men named mike scientists
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say so you know these are the real issues here when the washington post is not going after
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systemic racism when the washington post is not tracking down donald trump's nefarious activities
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their russian connection all of that nasty stuff they're going after the shark week discovery channels
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lack of diversity no joke here researchers say discoveries programming overwhelmingly featured white men
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as experts while emphasizing this is a real important part here they they hid this in the headline
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andrew while overemphasizing negative messages about sharks so we're being too nasty to the great
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white shark we're being we're being too preferential to scientists named mike and we're being too preferential
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to experts who are white males now i can absolutely understand that this is the kind of stuff jeff bezos
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was hoping to uncover when he bought the washington post you know you're probably looking to get maybe
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some favorable headlines for amazon but also tackling the real issues a lack of diversity on shark week
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uh again let me just go back to the original point which we which we touched on at the beginning
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these journalists here who are such experts who are such giants in the field andrew with us at true
00:19:07.480
north we can never reach these heights the journalist who wrote this is a stanford graduate you know
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really absolutely hard-hitting stuff i i'm i it's almost it's humbling to me to read something like
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this and realize i'm not even close i i maybe i missed something here are the sharks named mike like
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where are all the mics coming from in shark week the mics are the white scientists on the show so
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they did they did this really hard-hitting analysis stuff here they did some they did some research so
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there are too many marine biologists named mike that's the complaint that's exactly it that's exactly
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it so from 1988 to 2020 in a study which was completed uh by the public library of science which i think
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just included watching tv uh watching endless hours of shark week content which you know is
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actually a good way of getting uh of getting some grants you can you pitch something you pitch some
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insane stories saying we're gonna we're gonna track down the lack of diversity on shark week and really
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all you get to do is just watch tv for hours and hours on end it turns out that actually there's too
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many white mike men white men named mike on the program and not enough black women and all of all of the
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mike content on shark week is is nasty towards shark we're not we're not portraying sharks andrew as
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these great beings of uh of oceanic art you know we're painting them as nasty scary creatures in the
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depths of the oceans the the the study author's name is dave how dare you take aim at over representing
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mics when your name is dave i i know andrew they uh he's like that's like the that's like one step
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short of john smith and he's like oh we have too many mics here it's like dave supremacy is uh
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coming to roost here my goodness even better andrew there's another study in that they sort
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they source in this article and then the last name of the person who's who created this other study
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his last name is white neck hey the guy's last name is white does he have a knack for being white is
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that the is that is this like a big display of white shark great white privilege i don't know yeah so it's
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it's it's lisa white neck and dave who are talking who are doing this deep hard-hitting analysis
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on the on too many mics too many white men talking too many nasty things about sharks
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i'm out i'm just doing the i'm getting the ai thing to do the show next week so yeah how about
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it uh this has been another edition of fake news friday harrison faulkner you can catch him at ratioed
00:21:32.760
and you can catch me at the andrew lawton show and you can catch all of our colleagues at tnc.news
00:21:38.600
where i hope you can chip in a few bucks for the stellar news that you can't live without that you only
00:21:43.880
get here on fake news friday about you know white sharks named mike or whatever i don't know uh
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donate i'm not selling it donate.tnc news support support our journalism uh have a great weekend